Saving Santa 3D (DVD) – Movie Review
Christmas awaits us and that means children worldwide are looking forward to a visit from Santa Claus. And with the festive season, holiday films are just bare essentials. We’ve all seen Father Christmas’ North Pole working station where he, together with an army of elves, prepares for the most wonderful time of the year all the rest of the year long. And who wouldn’t like to be working on the North Pole, for Santa Claus, the greatest, kindest boss ever? But like every job, it has its downsides, like for example the poop-scooping of the reindeer excrement. Bernard, the “feces manager”, is exactly that: a reindeer-poop-scooper.
It’s not that Bernard isn’t ambitious, no, because he hopes to one day become an inventor. Now and then he is even allowed to pitch his ideas and show his inventions to the company Santech, but that mostly turns out into a catastrophe. Only last year he managed to erase everyone’s memory with his memory-eraser, which was meant to be used just on children who accidentally ran into Santa Claus in their homes. This year though, he is certain his invention will pass the inspection. But because of a tiny error, the force-field that protects the North Pole from being discovered by the outside world gets switched off for just a slight moment; a slight moment that is sufficiently long for the villain of the story to strike.
Neville Baddington has had it out for Santa’s secret for years now. He has always wondered how it is possible that Mr. Claus manages to distribute presents to the entire world within 1 night and with just 1 bag. If he would figure out the answer, his company, a delivery service, would become the most successful in the whole world.
Santa has only just told Bernard what makes him capable of being Santa. The secret is a time-machine. And when Bernard discovers his mistake and comes face-to-face with Neville Baddington, there is only 1 solution: He has to go back in time to stop this villain from reaching the North Pole! Easier said than done of course…
If at all possible, watch the English-spoken version. This is valid most of the time with any film, but in this case especially as the Dutch voiceovers are at some points very hard to understand. In the original version, Martin Freeman, Tim Curry, Tim Conway and Ashley Tishdale have borrowed their voices to the characters. The songs (of course there are songs) are also sung by them, which gives it a more authentic feel. Luckily the music is only bestowed upon the viewer in small portions.
Conclusion
Saving Santa is a very entertaining animation film that, for the ones who have seen it, sometimes reminds us a bit of “Back to the future” because of the time-travel aspect. Just like in those movies, Bernard sometimes meets himself in the past, which of course gets him into all kinds of trouble. Although the ending is never uncertain (like usual in such kinds of family-films), this predictability is never a disturbance in ‘Saving Santa’. There are some witty jokes involved and although the chronological leaps might sometimes confuse the smallest amongst us, the story line always remains rather clear throughout the cartoon.
Animation-wise it is clear it was a rather low-budget project. It can be easily distinguished from the big players of the industry, but it is still appealing. The characters are cute enough and they have put enough work into the backgrounds.
All in all, ‘Saving Santa’ is a heartfelt Christmas animation and certainly deserves an audience.
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